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26 CAVALIER CORNER BY MELISSA DUDEK L ucas Oil Stadium is usually the home of the Indianapolis Colts. For the month of June, however, it had a differ- ent tenant. The NFL stadium was the site of the 2024 U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials. Fifty current and former Virginia swimmers descended on Indy, looking to leave their mark and punch their tickets to the 2024 Paris Games. One swimmer, however, made a huge impression on the 20,000-plus fans per day before she ever jumped into the pool. An 84-foot-tall, 214-foot-wide action photo of UVA alum Kate Douglass was draped across the north facade of the building. Expectations do not get much bigger than 84 feet tall, but Douglass lived up to them. She won all three of the events she competed in and did so in a hype-worthy manner: set- ting a meet record in the 200 breast during a morning prelim swim and then, three days later, posting the fourth-fastest time ever in the 200 individual medley for a U.S. Open record. Douglass will be one of at least 10 Vir- ginia athletes headed to Paris. Six swimmers make up most of that tally, along with two rowers, including one Para- lympian, and two tennis players. Additionally, Virginia's Todd DeSorbo will serve as Team USA's head swimming coach. Some sports, including men's soccer, have not announced their official rosters as of the publication date of this issue, so Virginia's presence at the Games could po- tentially increase. The Cavaliers have a rich tradition of Olympians. Prior to this year, 71 Virginia athletes have competed at the Olympics, winning 34 medals with 17 golds. Ahead of the July 26 opening ceremo- nies, let us introduce you to the Paris 2024 Olympic Hoos. SWIMMING The six Cavaliers in Paris are the most UVA representatives from swimming at a single Olympic Games. It is the fifth consecutive Olympic Games that the Virginia women's program has had representatives in the field. Each swimmer earned their Olympic qualifications at Olympic Trials in their home nation. In the case of the U.S. team, only the top two finishers in each event qualified. Freestyle relays were determined by the top four finishers in a freestyle event (i.e., the top four finishers in the 100-meter freestyle race were named to the 4x100-meter free relay team). In the case of international teams, an athlete had to hit an Olympic A-Cut time at their championship, with no more than two athletes earning qualification per event. Aimee Canny, a rising third-year, was the first to qualify, earning her spot on the South African team in April. She will be competing in the 200 freestyle, an event in which she won the ACC title in February. Kate Douglass ('23) will compete in her second Olympics after earning bronze in the 200 IM in Tokyo. Douglass, a two-time Honda Award winner, won 15 NCAA individual and relay titles and 28 All-America honors in her four seasons at UVA. She has qualified for three individual events in Paris: 100 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 200 breaststroke. Paige Madden ('21) will compete in her second Olympics. She won silver in Tokyo in the 4x200 free relay. The two-time ACC Swim- mer of the Year won four NCAA individual or relay titles during her UVA career and 14 All-America honors. She will compete in the 400 and 800 free in Paris after second-place finishes in both events at the trials. She has also earned a spot on the 4x200 free relay. Alex Walsh, who was a fourth-year in 2024, is heading to her second Olympics after gar- nering a qualification on the second to last day of the Olympic Trials. Walsh, who earned a silver medal in Tokyo in the 200 IM, returns to try to better that finish in that same event. She won gold in the 200 IM at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest and picked up two relay golds at the meet. Walsh has won a combined 19 NCAA in- dividual and relay titles in her four years at UVA. Her 26 ACC titles are the most in conference history. She plans to utilize her bonus COVID year and return to UVA as a graduate student next season. Gretchen Walsh, a rising fourth-year, will make her Olympic debut in Paris. The 2024 Honda Award Winner for swimming set the world record in the 100 fly during swim tri- als. In only three seasons at UVA, she has won 18 NCAA individual and relay titles in 21 races. She has qualified for the 100 fly, 50 free and the 4x100 free relay in Paris. Emma Weber, a rising third-year, is making her Olympic debut. Weber finished second in the 100 breast at the Trials, edging out the defending Olympic gold medalist, Lydia Jacoby, to earn her spot on the team. Weber finished third in the 100 breast B-Final at this year's NCAA Championships and third in the finals at the ACC Championships. Todd DeSorbo was an assistant coach in the 2020 Games at Tokyo, helping the team to 30 total medals, including 18 won by UVA swimmers. He was the head coach for the U.S. team at the 2022 World Champi- onships in Budapest, Hungary, leading the American team to 23 medals, nine of which were claimed by UVA swimmers. The Collegiate Swim Coaches Associa- tion honored him as its Women's Division I Coach of the Year each of the last four years (2021-24). This is his first time serving as the women's Olympic head coach. Swimming runs from July 27-Aug. 4 at the Paris La Defense Arena, the largest in- door events venue in Europe. Preliminaries start daily at 5 a.m. ET, with finals beginning at 2:30 p.m. WELL REPRESENTED UVA Will Be Omnipresent At This Summer's Olympic Games In Paris Virginia alum Kate Douglass, whose image graced the outside of Lucas Oil Stadium at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in June, is among a school-record six UVA swimmers who'll compete at the Paris Games. (Photo by Jack Spitser/courtesy UVA)